An interesting feature of the 'rockfall story from Italy' link, is the isolated boulder in the paddock slightly below where the most recent one ended up. It appears to have been there for some time, so this phenomenon is not new to that particular location...
~> I reckon the residents would've got a double shock when they looked out their window at the additional boulder that stopped just short of the house and realised how close that shave was!

Apparently no earthquake involved. However, there's a minor branch of geology that uses precariously perched rocks (or their absence) to work out the magnitude of past earthquakes. Abundance of precarious rocks in Australia = no big earthquakes. Read all about it